Andrew smiled to himself as he watched the news. "I'm glad Burgess finally got what he deserves. I knew all along he was no good. I hope he rots."
"Uh huh," Amanda replied, barely listening to Andrew's rant as she scurried around the apartment, getting ready to go out.
"Maybe now that he's gone all of the drama at the office will go with him. It seems like we spend more time putting out fires there than getting any actual work done."
"Maybe so," Amanda said as she disappeared into the bedroom. When the doorbell rang she called back. "Would you answer that please, Andrew?"
Barely taking his eyes off the television, Andrew got up and walked to the door.
"Vanessa. What are you doing here?"
"Hi, Andrew. I'm here to pick up Amanda. Is she ready or does she need a few minutes?"
"Pick up Amanda?" he repeated with a confused expression. He wasn't sure he'd heard that right. "For what? What's going on?"
Before Vanessa could reply, Amanda entered the room. "Hi. I'm ready to go."
"What's going on?" Andrew asked, addressing his wife the second time. "Where are you going?"
"I've already told you, more than once. Don't you listen to anything I say?" Amanda sighed, too impatient to wait for a response. "Vanessa invited me to go along with her to the spa."
"I'm getting made over before I take my new head shots and I thought Amanda might like to come along as my guest. I think it will be a fun way for us to get to know each other. Besides, nothing raises a girl's spirits like getting all glammed up."
Andrew was still baffled. "Are you sure you told me about this?"
"Yes, I told you," Amanda said sharply. "Come on, Vanessa, let's go."
Andrew stood, scratching his head even after they said goodbye and left the apartment. Since when had they become good friends?
"Hey Cass, do you have a pair of scissors?" Zara asked as she stood in the doorway to her sister's room. "I think I left mine at the old house, probably with a bunch of other random things I'd forgotten about."
"Yeah, sure," she said, reaching moving across the room to fetch the scissors from a desk drawer. "Are you going to go back for the things you left behind?"
"I would, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I don't think I left anything big and anything I did leave behind is probably destroyed by now, if it was noticed."
"I can't believe your friends turned on you like that."
"I know. Some friends, huh? I can't say you didn't warn me about them, or about Thomas at least."
"I'm sorry I was right about him."
"Maybe I'll listen to you next time. I just can't believe my judgement was so bad. To think, I liked the guy. I was actually flattered when he seemed to take notice of me and he turned out to be a complete lunatic. I feel so stupid."
"You shouldn't feel stupid about that," Cassie said.
"No, of course not, Zara. Besides it's not too late."
Zara and Cassie looked up to see their mother standing in the hallway. "Too late for what?"
"To win him over, if you're still interested . . ." Serena said as she slowly walked into the room. "Or, if you'd rather go the other way, to take revenge."
Zara stared in shock. She couldn't believe her mother was suggesting what she thought she was suggesting. "Are you serious?"
"Of course. There are plenty of spells we can cast. Any kind that you like."
"I don't want to cast any kind of spell," Zara exclaimed, incredulously. "I don't want revenge on anyone and I certainly don't want a guy like him in my life. It was just bad judgement, ok? It's over with now and I'm just going to move on with my life."
"It's probably for the best anyway," Cassie remarked. "You can see how much good the love potion she made to help me with Blaine did."
"Just be patient, Cassandra. And don't give up. There's still more we can do." As she spoke, Serena's words seemed to get slower and slower. "I'll look up something for you, but later. I need to lie down a moment."
Cassie and Zara looked at each other with concern as Serena left the room.
"You aren't seriously going to let her try that, are you?"
Cassie shrugged. "I don't know what else to do."
"How about just telling him how you feel? If you aren't going to be up front with him, you might as well just give it up. You can't make him love you if he doesn't and I don't know why you would even want to make someone love you if you could."
Cassie turned away and stared blankly at the wall. "It's probably too late anyhow. He said he was going to ask her to marry him. They're probably engaged already."
Reese paced around the house, occasionally glancing at Blaine who was seated on the couch. They really needed to talk and soon. Everyday he kept dropping hints about marriage, children, and the future while she just stuttered and stared, not knowing exactly how to say what was on her mind. She knew she probably should have brought this up and talked this out before things had gotten so serious between them, before everything had gone so far, but even now she didn't know where to begin.
When the doorbell rang, Reese jumped and hurried to answer it, grateful for a distraction.
Reese opened the door to see a woman standing on the porch with two little girls behind her and a toddler in a stroller at her side.
"Hi, I'm Jeanette from next door," the woman said with a friendly, but weary smile. "You must be Reese."
"Yes," she said, tentatively.
"I can't thank you enough for helping me out like this. My usual babysitter is sick and I really don't know what I was going to do."
"What?" Reese asked.
Noting her confusion, Jeanette looked concerned. "I hope there's not a problem."
"Hi, Jeanette," Blaine said, stepping up behind Reese. "Come on in."
"What's going on?" Reese asked.
"Oh, sorry," Blaine apologized. "I meant to tell you earlier. I ran into our neighbors last night, we started talking, and I agreed to babysit today. I hope that's ok. I meant to run it by you, but you got home late last night and today it slipped my mind. Sorry."
"It will only be for a few hours and I'll be back as soon as I can," Jeanette chimed in, hoping the panicked stricken Reese wouldn't send them away. She didn't know what she would do if they backed out now.
"I was the one who agreed to this, so I'll take care of everything," Blaine promised. "Is it ok?"
Looking back and forth between Blaine and Jeanette, Reese didn't see how she could say no. "Yeah, I guess it will be ok."
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